


The New Campers.

by CescaLR



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series), Gravity Falls
Genre: (not all the adventures are in this because of how I've structured the timeline), AU, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, I don't have first so like I'm not getting these episodes early like many of ya, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Season/Series 04, Season/Series 04 Spoilers, Spoilers - Gravity Falls: Lost Legends, Tags May Change, anyway, but the ones without the Grunkles basically - and the ones that don't necessarily need them), for gravity falls, i guess? not really, regardless
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-09-26 22:02:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20396851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CescaLR/pseuds/CescaLR
Summary: What could go wrong, really?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Surprising no-one, I did not rewrite the tags this morning.

"We're thirteen going on fourteen and ready to take on the world!" Mabel yells cheerfully, shoving a fist forwards into the air with dramatic flair - Grenda cheers, stomping heavily on the ground - and Dipper manages to dodge out of the way of his sister's outstretched fist before it slams him on the nose. Mabel's holding her arms like she's about to throw a freaking shot put, and then suddenly she's laughing, obnoxiously loudly, and _skipping _over to David and Gwen.

"Hi!" She chirps. "I'm ready for adventure!"

"Fuck," Max says, and ignores her gasp. "You're another - she's like a sick and twisted merge of _David and Nikki. _And _Glitter._"

"You get used to her," The blonde, Pacifica, drawls. "Or - well, you get used to finding glitter in your hair. And suitcase. And bed. And - well, you get used to her." She purses her lips.

Max doesn't crack. He doesn't. He doesn't just stare in unbridled horror, at this - this _affront _to everything he believes in. He smirks. Because now - well.

There are four more campers to terrorise. Perfect.

* * *

"Everyone!" David had said, loudly, in the mess hall that morning. "Now, I know this is short notice, but I have some exciting news!"

The campers stared back at him, unimpressed and bored.

He just grinned, happily. "We're getting _four new campers _today!"

"Four new campers?" Max demanded. "The fuck kind of parents wait until the middle of the holiday to shove their kid somewhere out of the way? Either you do it early or you're stuck with us bastards."

"Those are the rules."

"No they are not!" David says, "Anyway! It's not the middle of the holiday, Max - we've only been here for - "

"Nearly two months, David," Gwen says. "So, actually. Yeah. It's later than the middle of the holiday."

"Don't be silly, Gwen, Camp Campbell runs the summer program for four months out of the year!"

"That's longer than-" Neil starts

"The new campers will be here within the hour!" David barrells on, cheerfully, "Unless the Quatermaster decides to arrive early-"

Two honks of a horn could be heard. A very familiar horn.

"Right on time!" David says, cheerfully. "Almost like my sentence there was a cue for his arrival! Now, campers, we want to welcome these four new friends of ours happilly and properly, so we should - go out there, now!" And David turned around to leave the mess hall. Everyone else followed, for lack of anything better to do.

"Their names are Mabel Pines, Dipper Pines, Pacifica Northwest, and Grenda Grendinator-"

"Dipper? Grendinator?" Nurf asked. "Ha."

"Like you can talk, Gaylord Nurfington," Max replied.

"Fair." Nurf nodded. "Perhaps I make fun of names I find odd to mask my own insecurites about..."

Max tuned him out - as he always did when the bully got all _philosophical _on them - and, ugh, returned his attention to David.

"Mabel and Dipper are twins," David told them. "Pacifica is - blonde, and Grenda -"

"Is the other one," Gwen had said. "Let's get a move on before they think the place is closed, yeah?"

David smiled. "A good idea, Gwen!" He'd said, cheerfully, and then sped up his pace. That did not mean the rest of them had to, though, so the campers - for the most part; ignore Space Kid - lagged behind, and arrived at the 'bus stop' just after the doors shut behind the last new camper.

The blonde one, Paficia was standing, _filing her nails. _She looked more like a Flower Scout than anything else, though the candy-coloured hair was missing (her eyebrows were black, though, which hinted at her hair maybe not being blonde normally - but then, Gwen's hair was some fucked two-tone mix of colours, and Nikki's hair was _green, _so, who knows?) but the stance, the nail-file, the haughty, bitchy countenance, all there.

_Great. _At least Nikki didn't act like a Flower Scout. As he looked at their newly aquired Flower Scout knock-off, Max was suddenly aware of how very glad he is of that fact.

The lone boy of the group adjusted his hat - a fairly battered thing, but the white of the front panel still managed to glare like _fuck _under the sun, pristine as shit - and stood awkwardly next to the eerily similar girl stood next to him.

Presumably, these would be the Pines Twins.

(His presumptions about identites did, of course, turn out to be correct.)

* * *

"So!" David smiles cheerfully at them all, standing around the firepit in the centre of the tents' circle. "New campers, old campers, relatively experienced campers - we're going to have to make some _slight _changes to the sleeping arrangements, to account for the - _very welcome _and mildly unexpected new additions to our group!"

"Not me," Max says, loudly. "My tent is me and me alone. Fuck off."

"Ha ha. Ha ha, very funny, Max." David says. "Remeber - _language!_ Anyway! Mabel, you'll be with Nikki-"

"Great!" Mabel chirps up. _Chirps. _Max is going to have a field day ruining _her _day.

"Ooh! Ooh! I have to show you my totally-secret-wild-animal-collection!" Nikki laughs, and grabs Mabel's arm, and then they're off.

Not as fast as Max can run, obviously. But damned close.

"Well, I'll have to deal with that later!" David says, brightly. "Ered, Pacifica-"

"Cool," Ered says, blithely. "I suppose that's fine," Pacifica drawls.

"Well okay then!" David turns to Max.

No.

_No._

"Max, I'm sorry, but there really is no space and the tents aren't big enough for more than two per each, so, you'll be sharing with Dipper," He says, and damn him but he actually does sound mildly apologetic - probably to the both of them. Max can see him taking Dipper aside to warn him - and honestly, someone _should. _Max didn't deal well with Dolph barging on in (not that anyone would, frankly) and he hadn't dealt well with other 'tentmates' before.

Dipper glances at Max. "It's fine, really," Dipper says. "I've been... camping up in Oregon, before. Don't need a tent, if there's no room."

"Nonsense!" David says. "There's _plenty _of room, just like the brochure says. Now, Grenda - erm..."

"Dolph, you move in with Neil,"

"Me?" Neil blinks. "No, no - the other Neil," David corrects, and space boy grins. "Me?" He says, cluelessly.

"Yes, you!" David smiles. "And..." He frowns, clearly thinking hard on who to put where.

"There was a spare councellor's cabin on the old premises," Quatermaster says, out of the blue. Max wonders how long he's been standing there for, but decides it's not worth the mental trauma to question. "We could build it here."

"A splendid idea, Quatermaster!" David says. "Until that's done -"

"Please, we got this done in less than the time it took to eat a sandwitch," Max says. "Grendinator here sleeps in the cabin. Done. Can we go, now?"

"Well," David starts, but half of the campers have already disappeared.

Drat. Max needs to make sure he's the fastest, otherwise how the fuck is he supposed to make any sucessfull escapes from any of the _fuckery _that occurs here?

"I'll take that as a yes," David continues, after a momentary falter. "However!"

Max groans. "Now Max," David says, as sternly as he can manage (generally speaking, this is not a high level of sterness, and in truth just sounds mildly condescending, which makes Max even _more _likely to chop his legs off with an axe) "We're all here together, and in the spirit of togetherness, I'll ask you to show your new tentmate around the camp! I'll - find Nikki and tell her the same - Ered -"

"On it," Ered says, easily. "C'mon, 'Fic-"

"Pacifica," Pacifica says. "It's not a name that shortens."

Ered shrugs. "Cool," She says. "I'll show you 'round." And they leave at a far more sedate pace the anyone else has, up to this point.

"Fucking fine," Max says. "You. Idiot. Let's look around this godforsaken hellhole. Get it over with quick."

"Right," Dipper says, dryly.

"If you disturb me when I'm trying to sleep," Max says, when they're out of David's earshot, "I will find ways to make your life very, very difficult."

"That's not hard," Dipper says, "I'm used to it."

"Hm." Max walks down the 'path' - the new grounds haven't been their camp for long enough, so the old pathways haven't been beaten into the grass yet, but Max still knows them, for fuck's sake, _why - _towards the lake.

"We do canoing and shit here." He says. "The water's cold and gross. Probable biohazard. Occasinally we're dragged out on a beach day."

"Sounds... safe," Dipper says. "Figures this would be where mom and dad sends us this year."

"This year?" Max finds himself asking.

"Well, last year we went to Oregon," Dipper says, kicking at the sand lightly. "Stayed with our Grunkle Stan. Conman, not very good with kids, at first, but you know. Character growth." Dipper pauses and shrugs. "Gravity Falls, though you've never heard of it, most likely. Isn't on any maps, far as I know."

"What?" Max looks at him oddly. Dipper shrugs again.

"Small town," Dipper says. "Very interesting though. Founded by the eighth-and-a-half president."

"The what now?" Max asked, raising an eyebrow. Was this kid here for conspiricy camp or something?

Dipper grins, a pleased sort of secretive grin, the kind of grin people have when they know something you don't. "Odd man," Dipper says. "Very odd. Gave me a key to every lock in the country. Works, too."

"I don't believe you." Max says. Dipper shrugs again and looks out at the lake.

"What's that?" Dipper asks, pointing at spooky island.

"Spooky Island," Max says, and delights at the other's startle when the usual lightning strikes somewhere and thunder crashes above.

"What the-" Dipper cuts himself off. "Spooky Island." He says, and it happens again. "Spooky Island," He repeats, and again. He acclimatised quickly, not jolting after that first time. "Huh," Dipper says. "Well then."

He drops down to his knees, leans on his heels, and takes a book out of his vest's pocket. It's new, by the looks of it's cover, but well-used, by the wear and tear on the binding. He unhooks a pen - ink, fountain - and begins to write.

"What are you doing?" Max demands.

"Documenting," Dipper says. "You here for observational camp?" Max asked, sarcastically.

Dipper hums, non-commital. "Don't know what they signed us up for, actually." DIpper says. "Grunkles are still out on the ocean, so we can't stay with them, and our parents are... busy."

"Are they now?" Max says, dryly. He stands awkwardly to the side, hands shoved in the pocket of his hoodie, as the sort-of-nearly-kind-of-already-teenager writes in his fucking diary or some shit. Just. Right there and then.

"Very," Dipper replies. "What's on the island?" He asks.

"Spooky Island -" commence lightning and thunder -"Is where... well, where Cambpell used to have a house. It... burned down recently. In a freak accident," Max says, blithely -

"You burned down the house, alright," Dipper writes down that and Max blinks.

"Not what I said," Max points out.

"No, but it's what you implied." Dipper replies. "I'm not an idiot, far from it. What else is - or was - there?"

"Some - kid's ghost," Max waves a hand. Dipper's head snaps up, immediately interested.

"Oh really?" He asks. "What kind of ghost?"

"It's just a ghost," Max says, rolling his eyes.

"There are different types of ghost," Dipper rolls his eyes right back, flips the pages of his journal back a few to open on a previous entry. He shoves the page in Max's face, standing quickly, and looks at him expectantly.

Max sighs, longsufferingly, and takes the book.

"What the fuck am I looking at," He says, flatly, ignores the thirteen year old's wince. Really, Max is ten, what the hell is a teenager wincing at swearing for? Unless he's like _David. _His sister obviously is, so there's not a small liklihood he is too.

Fuck that noise.

"Classifications," Dipper says, impatiently. "Look, just tell me which of those descriptions match him the most."

"Benevolent, I guess," Max says, "Helped us out."

"Nice," Dipper smiles. He takes the book back. Max scowls at him and turns around. "Come on," He says. "Fucking tour to do."

Dipper catches up to him at some point back up the path. "What took you?" Max asks, irritable. He wants to get this tour over and done with, and then he can - go bother Nikki and Neil, get into some fun trouble.

"Did a sketch of the island," Dipper says. "Where next?"

"Camp buildings," Max says. "Mess Hall. Councellors'. Outhouse. Et Cetera."

"Right," Dipper nods, and goes silent.

"Hey, loser," Dipper's head snaps left. Max turns normally towards the noise, to see Pacifica standing at the treeline. "These woods are terrible to navigate. I've been looking for you - Mabel wants to have a chat about something, or whatever."

"Right," Dipper nods. "I'll go talk with her after this tour."

"No, fucking go for it," Max says. "I don't have to give you the tour right now. I don't want to give you the tour. In fact, I'll ask someone else to do it. Bye."

And so Max walks off.

"Charming," Pacifica says, and then she smiles at Dipper. "Kid get on your nerves?"

"I don't remember this much swearing," Dipper walks over to her. "Man, I wish we were still in Gravity Falls."

"Well, your parents were bound to realise your Grunkles weren't there eventually," Pacifica points out. "Took them enough time."

"Two months," Dipper replies. "And now we're in a shady as hell camp with a Spooky Island-" cue thunder and lightning -"Which does that whenever you say that. There's a ghost there, which means there _must _be other stuff here - I know Grunkle Ford said weirdness wasn't specific to Gravity Falls, but... there's so little in Piedmont that - well I kinda didn't believe him." Dipper adds, sheepishly.

Pacifica rolls her eyes. "Loser," She says. "C'mon. Mabel's waiting."

"Can't have that," Dipper says, smiling, and she smirks.

* * *

Neil is arguing with Dipper about some equation or another - and something about morality and safety and accusations of stupidity and a lack of true understanding of science - while Mabel and Nikki are... somewhere (also, Nerris and Dolph are missing, so they're probably on one of those pointless adventures Nikki and the others like to go on) and Max is not sort of standing around doing nothing.

Usually, science camp activities are more interesting. Neil hasn't even blown anything up once, yet, nor created sentient life - he'd settle for a repeat incident; hadron collider, truth serum, just. Something to spice up the day. It's been fucking boring up to now, and then Nurf started monologuing philisophically to himself to it went from boring to bad, and now he's very bored and in a bad mood, which. Probably not a good combination for anyone, but you should definitely not trust Max in that situation.

Preston starts - Max doesn't know the fucking term, but he's doing the whole mental masturbation thing again, with the pretentious 'theatre' shit, and Max goes to mess with the chemicals on the table.

"Max!" Neil says, disrupting his plans of mild destruction (what? Complete destruction would just be a bitch to clean up, and everyone would know he did it, so he'd be _forced to)_ and increasing Max's levels of _can't fucking deal with this shit unless something interesting happens _by a fucktonne. 

"What? What do you want?" Max turns to Neil. "Tell him the weirdest thing that's happened-"

"No," Max says, loudly. "Fuck off,"

Max hears a gasp and Dipper sighs, looks over Max's shoulder at, presumably, his sister - presumably, because she soars over them and skids on the landing, then laughs, stands, and jogs back over.

"I need to get better at that," She says, cheerfully, shoving a fucking grappling hook who knows where in her pocket-less outfit.

"You didn't need to launch yourself over the stand," Dipper says. "The stuff on this table could explode if someone _breathed near it wrong, _Mabel, please, be careful."

"Pshht," Mabel flaps a hand, dismissivley. "When's the next activity?" She asks. "No-one's telling me. I asked Nerris but she's busy doing alchemy or something. Not real alchemy though, or I'd be right there with her, making gold - but, she didn't tell me, so I asked Harrison, but he's not bothering to take part at all and just shrugged at me! Rude! And -"

"Nobody knows, idiot," Max says. Dipper narrows his eyes at Max, and Max scoffs, because the gangly not-quite-a-teen isn't going to scare _him. _"David just shows up out of fucking nowhere and tells us what we're going to do. We slip away quietly in the aftermath of whatever disaster happens at the end of the morning and do whatever the fuck we want until lunch, and after it, until dinner."

"It's not David today, Satan, and none of you are slipping away on my watch," Gwen says. "We're not having a repeat of your little excursion to Spooky Island-" She flinches at the lightning-"God _damn it! Ugh, _well, look. It's canoing in the afternoon, so - finish up the science in the next - twenty minutes? - and we'll go to lunch."

"Not David?" Neil asks. "Yeah, his leg's still recovering. I don't know about you, but I'm not having him swimming in a cast. Now - get your science on, or something, I'll be over there, keeping watch." And with that, Gwen walks off.

"Well, guess I'll have to tip Gwen into the lake this time," Max says. "Entertaining."

"That's probably the least inventive of your schemes," Neil says, lifting up a beaker and squinting at it's contents.

"It's a classic," Max says. "What are you two fucks still doing here?"

"This is the only table with actual equiptment," Dipper says, flatly. "You swear a lot for a ten year old," Mabel says, uncertainly.

"Hey, where's Nikki?" Neil asks, before Max can respond with a suitably scathing remark.

"In the woods," Dipper says. "How do you know that?" Max asks.

"Didn't you notice the computer in the tent this morning?" DIpper asks, like Max is an idiot. "Giant monstrosity from the eighties? About five CVA screens?"

"Where did you get that?"

"The remains of 'computer camp' or something, it was in a box and David let me have it," Dipper says, distractedly, as he measures some substance or another before putting it into a - little ceramic bowl and grinding it up into a fine powder. "Anyway, there was some really random stuff in there - the point is, I brought some old cameras and hooked everything up. I've got a live feed of the forest for research purposes - caught some interesting stuff on camera already, which is promising. But it also lets me know when people are in there."

"How do you know how to do that?" Neil asks. "Even when crazy McGucket knew how to make a computer, so I just asked him over the december break - few too many pointers about death robots, but, you know. Could come in handy one day."

"Really?" Max asks.

"Defninitely," Mabel grins. "Never know when you have to transform a building into a mech to fight an all-powerful alien invader! Now - Neil, smart kid, please, is there a way to make _glitter?"_

"You packed three large barrels of the stuff, Mabel," Dipper says. Whatever he's making makes a small explosion then glows bright yellow for a moment and he smiles. "Have you run out already?"

"No," Mabel says. "But I _will. _And I want to know how to make it! But better! And all glowy!"

"Shy _away _from the radioactive materials, Mabel," Dipper warns, and she salutes him like that was going to be a problem. "Ha ha! Course. Wasn't even thinking about it."

"We don't have any, anyway," Neil says. "Apparently trying to make a neuclear reactor endagers the camp because I 'don't know what I'm doing', bah. Look, here - maybe..."

Max tunes them out.

"Bored yet, small child?" The blonde one asks, and he scowls at her. 

"Aww," She mocks. "That's not even a little bit threatening. Trust me, a guy steals two losers' faces, you don't get made uncomfortable by a ten year old scowling all misanthropic like."

"Fuck off," Max says.

"Gladly," Pacifica says. "I'm only here because of them, anyway. Not really my scene - I get enough of the woods back home."

"Why bother?" Max asks. "If you don't wanna be here and you have the choice, don't fucking come here."

"Please," Pacifica rolls her eyes. "It's either this or finishing school. What my parents don't know won't hurt them. Much."

"Finishing school?" Max looks at her, unimpressed. "I think everyone has to finish school, unless you want to be a drop-out."

"Don't be stupid. You know," Pacifica waves a hand. "Finishing school. 'A finishing school is a school for young women that focuses on teaching social graces and upper-class cultural rites as a preparation for entry into society.'" She quotes, rolling her eyes again. "_Please_. I know all that like the back of my hand. After High-School _I'm _going to college, unlike my mom."

"So your parents sent you here instead?" Max asks, genuinley confused.

"_No, _you dimwit," Pacifica says. "They sent me to the Flower Scouts. I swapped busses halfway through the ride over."

"Well, that's the second one of those types," Neil says, looking at his work - Max has no idea what it is, just a blue liquid in a beaker. "Nikki ran away from the Flower Scouts too."

"Ew." Pacifica says. "Don't compare me to the wild child. No, _I _did this to spite my parents. And because these dorks would die in five minutes by throwing themselves at the nearest dangerous bit of weirdness they can find."

"You're the one who nearly sold your face," Dipper says, irritably.

"And I've _learned,_" Pacifica pulls out a nail file - she smiles, as if at her fucking... perfect cuticles or some dumb shit, but Max knows people better than that.

Dipper tosses a solid, mildy glowing yellow - rock, Max decides - up and down in his hand. "So the recipie works anyway," He says. "Not as bright as he said, but, it'll do."

"For what?" Neil asks. "Exploration," Dipper says. "Batteries don't last forever and I've only got so many for the torch I brought."

"Oh, cool." Neil nods, and goes back to his experimenting.

"Alright, shits, it's time for lunch!" Gwen calls out.

"Can she get away with that?" Pacifica asks. "Aren't you all like, ten?"

"Ered's fifteen," Neil says. "Dolph's, like, eight? Or something?"

"Or something," Max says, impatiently. "If we eat quickly we can go find Nikki and do something more _interesting _than rowing slowly on a shitty lake."

"True," Neil says. "I'd like to test-"

"We're doing something interesting, not something likely to get us _killed. _Not today, anyway." Max dismisses.

"Well, see you there," Mabel says, and - then she's just gone, swinging off from a tall tree with her random fucking grappling hook.

"C'mon, loser," Pacifica says, but she walks at a slow pace. "Before she hurts herself on the landing."

Dipper walks quicker.

* * *

"This isn't going to end well, is it?" Gwen says, feeling a sense of doom as she watches Nikki and Mabel row the canoe faster than they had any right to be able to do, Max attempt to flip over pretty much any canoe he came across, including Pacifica's - she just narrowly misses braining him with an oar, and Neil and Dipper comparing notes on something probably horribly dangerous. 

"It's going to go great, Gwen, I can feel it!" David says, cheerfully.

"Wish I had your optimism," Gwen says, dryly. "Oh, wait, I don't. Max, stop fucking trying to kill everyone!"

"Language," David says, smiling. "Nikki! Don't try and eat the fish, please-"

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"Checking the cameras." Dipper replies, completely ignoring Max's decidedly angry tone. He's ten. Dipper's taller, older, and frankly, because the second one doesn't always mean anything - someone with far more life experience. You fight an alien murder triangle, a ten year old doesn't scare you. Kids can be much, much worse than Max - just look at what Gideon used to be like (and still kind of is, but you know, he is trying, what with having a therapist and looking for new hobbies and friends) - and so Dipper just... he's really not bothered by Max. Sure, the swearing is a bit disconcerting just because it's so vehement - it's not like people at school don't swear, but they do it a bit more casually, and not when Mabel's around because she'd probably gasp at them, and everyone likes Mabel - but other than that?

Yeah, Dipper's not bothered.

"It's _one in the morning." _Max says.

"That's the point," Dipper adjusts the brightness on one screen as best he knows how - CVA screens and computers from the eighties are _terrible _to work with when people like McGucket didn't have a hand in making them - then shrugs. "More stuff comes out at night. Less afraid of getting caught."

Max makes an angry sort of sound. Dipper rolls his eyes.

"Alright, fine, I'll go outside," Dipper says. "I get it. Trust me, trying to sleep when your twin is having a sleepover? Impossible. You'd rather have your leg chewed on by a wolf. Night, man."

Dipper pulls the carts of computer equiptment out of the tent. Because he is considerate, thank you very much.

"Hey, Dipper."

"Pacifica," Dipper smiles. She's sitting on one of the sawn logs, across from the dark firepit.

"Know how to light one of these?" She asks, poking it with a stick.

"Well, sort of." Dipper says, leaving his carts of equpitment outside the tent, just shy of the entrance, as he walks over. "I borrowed a few things from the shack before we left -"

Dipper knelt down and took out a few things from his pocket - a compas, a rolled-up map, the new journal Ford had given him for christmas (which is still really awesome), a folded piece of paper, and a lighter, clearly branded for sale in the myster shack with it's green colour and darker green question mark on the side. 

"Stan'll sell anything," Dipper says, grinning. Pacifica smiles, slightly, as Dipper picks up one of the sticks on the fire and experimentally lights one end, then sticks the stick back into the firepit. It catches, thankfully, and he stands back up.

"Thanks, loser." Pacifica says.

"Can't sleep?" Dipper asks, sitting on one of the logs, poking the fire with the stick Pacifica hands to him.

"The cot isn't particularly _high quality, _no," She says, meaning, _'yeah.'_

"Maybe you'll get used to sleeping on low thread count cotton like the rest of us," Dipper teases, lightly, and she laughs a little.

"Doubt it, idiot." She looks around. "Anything strange happen yet?" She asks.

"Max says there's a ghost on the island," Dipper tells her. "So I want to check that out when we can get away from the counsellors."

Pacifica smirks. "Might not have to," She says. "Oh, David, it's just so interesting! Mom and Dad signed me up for supernatural phenomenon camp, you see, and the readings I've been getting on my scanners imply the presence of a ghost on the island! Can we go have a look?"

"Nerd," Dipper says, grinning. "Yes, you are," Pacifica nods. "Glad we have that covered."

Dipper rolls his eyes at her, and she does the same at him. "C'mon. It'd work, right?"

"Probably." Dipper muses. "He seems pretty... eager."

"Weirdo that loves the woods," Pacifica says, dismissively. "What are _you _doing up, anyway?"

"Checking the cameras," Dipper says. "They're not nightvision or anything, though, so it's hard to see what's going on."

"Shame," Pacifica says, seemingly not genuinely. "Maybe you'll find something tomorrow."

"Something always seems to happen in Gravity Falls," Dipper says. "And here doesn't seem any different. So, yeah, probably."

* * *

"Now, today we're going to see what the new campers are signed up for, and we'll make some activities for them, okay Gwen!" David says.

"It's six in the morning. I'm asleep." Gwen mumbles into her arms.

"You were writing happily not two hours ago!" David says cheerfully. "Now, we need to show the new campers they're welcome here. And - and three of them don't have camps."

"What? Again?" Gwen lifts her head just to emphasise her groan. "So, what? Max, who else?"

"Mabel, Mason, and Pacifica," David says. He's lost the cheer, and that's it. When that happens, Gwen's had _enough. _One of them has to give a shit, goddamn it.

"Dipper's been writing in that journal o' his, talking weird shit," Gwen says. "Probably Supernatural Interest Camp or something. Mabel's been throwing glitter everywhere, and I saw her knitting during science camp, so just - shove her in Art Camp. Pacifica... Pacifica probably ran away from the Flower Scouts, frankly, so... I don't know. Public Speaking Camp? People make mistakes, that's... probably the case. Here. With the lack of camps in their forms."

"Hopefully," David says. "Now, let's make this the best day we can! Their camps, and maybe scary stories tonight?"

"Sounds great," Gwen says, and drops her head back onto her book.

* * *

"Alright, campers!" David says, cheerfully, at breakfast.

"Oh great." Max mutters.

"We've added Dipper, Mabel's, and Pacifica's camps to the list of activities!"

"I don't have a camp," Pacifica says, frankly. "I'm a stowaway. I shouldn't be here, why would I have a camp?"

"Don't be _silly. _What do you enjoy?"

"Not the woods," Pacifica says, pushing her hair over her shoulder. "Talking. Fashion. I _guess _adventure, so long as I don't have to get dirty or swap out my shoes."

"Well that's great!" David says, cheerfully. "We thought we'd try out Public Speaking Camp this morning-"

"Oh, cool, that works." She says. "I do that all the time, it's fun to talk at people."

"Great!" David nods. "And Mabel, you're here for Art Camp-"

"_Glitter!" _Mabel grins. "Ooh! Can we - oh, can we do sculptures today? I love sculpting. I once made a very life-like wax figure of my Great Uncle! Which come to think of it proably reminded him of my other Great Uncle - oh, that's why he was so attached..." She looked mildly sad, for a moment. "Probably wasn't nice to see an identical copy of himself get beheaded when he'd lost his twin, for a few decades, was it?"

"No, no I doubt that was very fun," David tries for cheer. It's almost humerous, kind of.

"As for Dipper-"

"Supernatural Phenomenon, right?" Dipper asks.

"Interest, yes!" David grins again. "That will be last, before we gather around the campfire and tell _spooky stories!" _

"Oh great." Max says.

"Thank you for the optimisim, Max!" David says, cheerfully. Max shudders in horror. It was _sarcasm. _

"Well, let's go over to the stage, shall we?" And David leaves the mess hall. Everyone else does too, but at their own pace; Max loiters, and so he and Neil and Nikki leave last.

* * *

"And _that,_" Pacifica smiles. "Is why you _should _believe people when they tell you there's a conspiracy around your town, your family, and the eighth and a half president."

"... Did I just _pay attention _to all of that?" Max asks himself, half horrified and half impressed.

He's going to have to ruin her day _soon. _Max cannot have this happen.

"I did history," Gwen says dryly. "And I don't remember an eighth and a half president."

"He was erased from the history books." Pacifica says. "Don't believe everything the goverment tells you. They cover up a lot." She drops from the stage and sits on the edge of the front bench, next to Dipper, who's next to Mabel - then Grenda, then Nurf, then Dolph. Max is on the back row, with Nikki and Neil, Ered and Space Kid - the other Neil - and the other two rows are full of the other people.

"Well then," David says. "That was very good, Pacifica. Who's next."

"I'll go." Max says, standing. He has an _idea. _

David looks surprised, and then pleased. "Well then, Max-"

"Given we're on the topic of conspiracy theories," Max starts, as he walks up to the stage.

"Oh no." Gwen says.

Max smirks. "Let's air all the dirty secrets we know, shall we?"

* * *

Gladly having ruined at least a few people's morning, Max sneaks off with Neil and Nikki once Preston starts treating Public Speaking Camp like Theatre Camp.

Dipper doesn't notice this, because he's got the same idea, alonside Pacifica and Mabel and Grenda. It's a bit harder, on the front row, so Grenda starts a distraction, and the other three slip off, unnoticed.

They wait a few minutes, and Grenda appears, having come a different route to the same spot.

"Let's go!" Mabel grins, and they follow her down to the lake. Grenda lifts a canoe and drops it onto the water, then they all clamber in as she grabs a couple oars.

"What are you idiots doing?" Max asks, stepping out from the treeline.

"Adventuring!" Mabel grins at him. "You wanna come with? Grenda can get down another canoe!"

"Adventure!" Nikki yells. Grenda gets down another canoe, grabs a couple extra oars.

"What are you here for anyway?" Max asks the large girl.

"Language Camp." She says. "I want to speak the language of my boyfriend. He's an Austrian Baron."

"What?" Neil asks.

"_Royalty." _Grenda smiles, happily, and drops the oars into Neil's arms. "Very pretty boy, like I'm a very handsome girl. Let's go find a ghost!"

"You're beautiful, Grenda! Self-esteem!" Mabel cheers, as they start rowing their boat - all four of them make it much faster, but Max can do that on his own, so it's not very impressive.

"Well then." Neil says.

"Adventure! C'mon guys! It's been _days. _I'm _bored."_

"_Fine."_ Max says. Nikki grins widely and jumps into the canoe. Max and Neil follow, and they catch up to the others in seconds.

"Slow." Max says.

"Hot -" Dipper blinks at them. "That's too fast. You shouldn't be able to row that fast."

"One second at the shore, the next in the middle of the lake," Mabel agrees. "Awesome! What kind of magic lets you do that?"

"Not magic," Max rolls his eyes. "Skill. If you want magic, talk to Harrison."

"Magic doesn't exist." Neil says, firmly. "It's just another energy that can be manipulated that some people can use, and some can't. It's scientific. Nothing exists and nothing happens without reason."

"Boring." Mabel says. "And Magic does exist." Dipper says. "Supernatural Phenomena has been around since -"

"The _dawn of time!" _Mabel interrupts. "It's ancient. _Ancient." _

"Pretty much," Dipper agrees. They all arrive at spooky island too long after they started rowing, but keeping pace with the new campers did seem to speed them up at least a little bit.

"Now where'd you see the ghost?" Dipper asks.

"Just on the island." Max says. "Oi! Ghost kid! Where the fuck are you?!"

"Here." The ghost kid steps out of the bushes to their left. Dipper grins, pulls out that journal.

"Hi!" Mabel smiles at him. "What's your name?"

"Jasper," The ghost says. "Who are you guys?"

"Dipper and Mabel Pines," Dipper says. "Pacifica," Pacifiica states, breezily. "Grenda," Grenda nods to the kid. "Nice shoes." She states.

"Rad, aren't they?" He smiles happily, but that's fleeting.

"Do you mind if we ask you some questions?" Mabel asks, carefully. "Supernatural Interest, huh?" Jasper smiles, perhaps a little ruefully. "Sure, that's chill."

"How old are you?" Dipper asks.

"Um," Jasper shrugs. "Dead? I'm not sure... I guess, the same age I was when I died. Maybe - eleven? Ish?"

"Shit," Max says, offhandedly.

Mabel gasps, but Jasper just shrugs.

"This is a really... awkward question," Dipper says, "But..."

"How'd I die?" Jasper asks, rhetorically, knowing that was probably the question. "Sucky question, but... I'm not sure. I was in a dark cave, so I set this - red thing on fire, 'cause it had a quick, y' see, and... once it burned out, I was gone."

"You blew yourself up?" Neil asks, voice high.

"Oh." Jasper blinks. "You know what it was?"

"Dynamite, idiot." Max says. "How did you not know what - you know, nevermind."

"It's not like Campbell ever taught us anything useful," The kid says, kicking the floor with his incorporeal foot. "_Heck, _he was _awful _with us kids. Just took me a bit to realise -"

"How much of a fuck-up he is?" Max rolls his eyes. "Tough luck! It's so obvious, how did you not-"

"_Max." _Max blinks and looks at Mabel. "What?" He says. "It's his fault-"

"Don't set him off," Dipper says. "Different types of ghosts, different things happen when emotions get high. Sorry, Jasper."

"It's dandy, Dipper." Jasper shrugs. "He's not wrong. Fooled all'o us, even Davey in the end. Man, Davey hated the camp, then he won that stupid Order of the Sparrow and -"

"We know all that," Max says. "We don't," Dipper reminds him, writing away in his journal.

"Right, you do." Jasper hesitates. "Does Davey know..."

"No." Max says, shortly. "He thinks you're fine. Alive somewhere."

"Oh." Jasper pauses. "Well that's-"

"Stupid." Pacifica says. "You're hiding this from him? This matters. He has the right to know his friend is _dead, _idiot. It's not better to be ignorant."

"He's happy." Nikki says. "If he knew, he'd be-"

"Able to talk to Jasper." Pacifica says. "Not living a lie? Able to grieve? Any of those, and more."

"It's better." Jasper says. "That he doesn't know."

"It's not." Pacifica refutes. "It's _never _better."

* * *

"That was not scary."

Mabel and Dipper weren't scared by Space Kid's story, apparently. Nor was Grenda or Pacifica, by the looks of them.

Max clears his throat and sits up. "Are you crazy?" He demands. "What the fuck was that!" He gestures wildly at Space Kid.

"He's a good storyteller," Pacifica says. "But when I imigine it in my head it looks... I don't know. Fine. Not really disturbing. You know what's disturbing? People not having faces at all. But even then, it's not exactly scary, just, nausea inducing."

"A large triangle alien which can turn you into a tapestry is scarier." Granda shrugs. "I've been desensitised."

Mabel pats her on the shoulder.

"Let me try." Dipper says, standing. "I'm not the best storyteller-" "Liar!" Mabel yells, cheerfully, "You did a good job doing Stan's job that one time, and all he does is lie and tell stories!" - "But," Dipper ignores her, grabs a flashlight from his pocket and turns it on, points it up at himself.

"Let me tell you about a bunker, a shapeshifter, and a choice." He says.

"I'll go next." Pacifica volunteers. "Gotta choose between losers loosing faces and That Night in the manor."

"Latter," Dipper says, immediately. "Definitely the latter. Alright. So... one day, me, Mabel, Wendy, and Soos, decided to go look for something interesting to do in the woods - interesting it sure was, as it turns out the man I'd been looking for, the Author of the Journals, had been living down there for decades..."

* * *

"It was coming for us, and we couldn't leave the room - so we had to run another way, had to find another exit..."

"He saved us, or so we thought..."

"It turned into a horrifying abomination, with spindly legs and wide, gaping jaws, the warped, twisted faces of me and my sister charging at us -"

"Wendy attacked it. And I found her axe, and her body, once the water washed away."

"No!" Preston yells.

"Surprise of all surprises," Dipper continues, "Wendy appears behind me."

"What?" Dolph frowns. "But I waz sure you just said that Wendy vas dead?"

"There were now two Wendys," DIpper continues. "Both claiming to be the real Wendy. I had an axe. If I chose wrongly, and I swung." Dipper swallowed. "Well."

"Murder." Ered says. "Either you'd hit the monster, or you'd kill the real Wendy."

"Jesus." Pacifica says, and Mabel doesn't gasp or anything.

"It wasn't easy." Dipper says. "The monster was very good at impersonation. It knew her mannersims, everything. But there was one tell..."

"And in the end, we defeated the monster." There were cheers; Max just sat there glaring. This wasn't exactly scary, either - well, fine, the abomination had been fairly scary, and the tenseness of not knowing who was who was probably supposed to be daunting - but it wasn't _scary. _

"But it left us with one parting message." Dipper said. "I would die."

Mabel mimed how the shapeshifter had shown Dipper's death, and Pacifica gasped. "Shit, that's how it happened," She said, and Mabel blinked at her.

"What?" Mabel asked.

"When - you know, I'll just tell the story," Pacifica decides. "Flashlight, Dipper?"

Dipper hands her his flashlight, and she starts telling them about the night when her family nearly got them all killed.

* * *

The next morning, when they woke up, they heard the sound of the bus.

"I wasn't expecting any other new campers." David says, and Gwen stands. "Not a camper," She says. "'Gravity Falls born and raised' was her only credential at first, but she said she'd been to lumberjack camp and, well, with four extra campers we're _too _short staffed. So..."

"Well, let's meet her then!" David says, cheerfully.

"Who bets she's another cultist?" Max says, dryly.

"Not me!" Mabel says, cheerfully. "It's Wendy! It's gotta be!"

Dipper grins, as Pacifica shrugs. Grenda is the first to leave the mess hall, and the others follow quickly.

* * *

"Dipper!" Wendy grins. "Mabel! Northwest! Grendinator! Guess who's in town." She grins down at them - the redhead is very tall, probably around David's height - and he's around six-foot-something.

"Hi Wendy," Dipper smiles. "How is everyone?"

"Not as many adventures without you lot," Wendy says. "So bored, mainly. Hence why I'm here. A sixteen-year-old's gotta find her fun somewhere, dude. Anyway! As a camp counsellor, I need a pine tree something. Hat swap?"

"Sure," Dipper smiles, and they swap hats.

"Great!" Wendy nods at them all. "I'm Wendy, though if you've been doing campfire stories you probably already know that. I star in most of theirs," She shrugs, easily. "And I don't really care what you get up to. Honestly if you wanna do something that breaks the rules, I'll be right there with you." She winks. "To make sure you don't hurt yourselves, honest."

"Here is the guide book on being a good counsellor," David says, cheerfully. "And welcome to Camp Campbell!"

"Where _is _Campbell, anyway?" Nikki wonders.

"Doing some of his community service," David smiles. "I think. Anyway! Let's get you situated in the counsellor's cabin..."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> a favour was called in, which is why Pacifica is on the Camp Campbell list as well as the Flower Scouts one. That'll be a plotpoint later, maybe, probably. Definitely potentially, if I continue this.


End file.
